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July 2013 continues record summer at box office

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The numbers are in, and even though this month could not beat 2011’s $1.395 billion record. Nonetheless, it still got off to a hot end, with $1.7 billion in the bank.
This month has seen it’s fair share of successes and failures, with the biggest surprise of them all being The Conjuring, and major flops like The Lone Ranger and RIPD.
Despicable Me 2 has already been seen as one of the biggest films this summer, and that is definitely right. The film has earned $314 million after opening early this month. That means it has overtaken Man of Steel to become the second highest grossing film domestically this year. That bodes well for the spin-off next year, which will dumb most of it’s human voice cast and pit the minions with new characters. It definitely is a profitable franchise for Universal, after all.
Second this month goes to Grown Ups 2. Despite suffering from disastrous reviews, it benefited from having a still popular cast. It has earned $106.7 million over the cost of the month, which despite being a box office success, is still a disappointment, when compared with the original’s word of mouth and end gross which is higher.
Third this month goes to The Heat, which grabbed $104.9 million. It is already this year’s biggest comedy hit, and has earned $144 million since it’s debut.
Fourth place went to what looks like the biggest surprise hit yet this month, The Conjuring. It has earned $92.3 million this month yet, and is already the highest grossing horror movie of the year, eclipsing Mama. With great word of mouth coming out of the film, this film is definitely the biggest horror movie in years, which bodes well for director James Wan’s upcoming films, Insidious 2 and Fast and Furious 7.
Pacific Rim is definitely a disappointment, but no one should stretch the fanboy genre too much. It has still earned $87.4 million too date, and it really had to hope that it’s last few international territories will boost the film (China, Japan and more).
Monsters University continues Pixar’s hot streak, earning $86.4 million this month. It is now one of Pixar’s most successful film to date, and one of this summer’s biggest.
The Lone Ranger, despite grossing $85.9 million, is still a mega bomb for Disney, with a reported budget crossing $200 million (and that does not include marketing fees!). With international numbers not looking solid either, this film will definitely give the studio a hard time (they have Iron Man 3 and Monsters University, though).
The Wolverine has lost it’s charm after so long, it seems. This film failed to even eclipse X-Men: First Class’ opening weekend, and is still falling big. With only $69 million grossed in the month, it is definitely necessary that next summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past revives the X-Men franchise.
Turbo suffered from a gloat of animated movies at the box office, and earned only $61.6 million in the month of July. It is one of Dreamwork’s biggest disappointment to date.
World War Z also continued it’s great performance, after opening big back last month, and amassed $70.1 million. That might not look much, but it has already eclipsed star Brad Pitt’s Mr and Mrs Smith to become his highest grossing film domestically to date, with $194 million.
Both Red 2 and RIPD did terribly, with them grossing $38.4 and $27.3 million respectively. With bad reviews, Red 2 looks like it is going to have a hard time to even come close to the original’s gross, while RIPD looks like it can’t even reach half it’s budget.
As of now, the box office has earned $3.76 billion so far this summer, which easily sets a new record ahead of 2011 (up 9.2%) and last year (up 10.5%). Unless next month’s film all bombs, this summer is definitely set to reach a record for the season at the box office. However, it is worth noting that the box office is still running behind last year by 1%, and unless this fall and winter’s film all do much better than expected, it looks like this year will lose to last year’s overall numbers.
Check back again soon, for this weekend’s box office forecast!